Plans are filed to build 242 homes in Parrish

Prominent Bradenton home builder Carlos Beruff has filed plans with Manatee County to build 242 homes on land acquired through a foreclosure auction last year.

Beruff has proposed the single-family homes, together with commercial space, as part of a new Wildcat Preserve community, at 12180 Golf Course Road, in Parrish. A portion of the 94-acre tract will require rezoning to move forward, county records show.

Wildcat Preserve becomes the latest in a series of developments proposed over the past 12 months by Beruff, whose Medallion Home has been among the region's more active builders.

"The demand has certainly picked up the last 24 months," Beruff said. "We're on a steady, sustainable path."

Wildcat Parrish LLC, a Beruff affiliate, purchased the land at auction in October, for $800,100. Previous owners had defaulted on a $7 million loan from Iberia Bank.

A Sarasota company managed by Robert E. Prine Jr. and James S. Lyerly borrowed the money as part of a $1.5 million land purchase in March 2006. The company defaulted on the loan in July 2009.

Wildcat Preserve homes will mimic those at Beruff's 162-home Gable Creek neighborhood, where Medallion sells homes from the low $200,000s to $300,000.

He said he hopes to break ground on the Wildcat project by the fourth quarter of this year.

Beruff's biggest land deal to date also came in October, when a company he controls purchased 553 acres in Myakka City out of foreclosure from Hancock Bank, for $900,000. He also acquired 109 vacant lots in the River Plantation neighborhood of Parrish in July, for $2.1 million, and another 122 lots and 100 additional acres in the Twin Rivers subdivision, also in Parrish.

Early last year, Beruff picked up 200 lots and 100 acres of land, also in Parrish, for $1.6 million.

He also purchased a 289-acre tract on Upper Manatee River Road for $4.7 million in February 2011, records show.

Last July, Beruff also led an investment group that bought 523 acres of bay-front property before it was auctioned off because of foreclosure.

With 1,600 housing units, a resort-style hotel and convention center planned, the Long Bar Point project is one of the largest residential developments to emerge in Southwest Florida since the recession.

Medallion Home is now selling in 11 communities, from Parrish south to North Port.

The builder registered $80 million in sales last year, closing on 240 new homes, a 22 percent increase over 2011.

"For us, it's been about our ability to use cash, without having to borrow from banks," Beruff said.